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Watch - Duhan van der Merwe makes try-scoring return for Edinburgh
Duhan van der Merwe scored two tries on his return to Edinburgh colours as the Scottish club triumphed 53-8 over Benetton in the United Rugby Championship.
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British and Irish Lions wing Van der Merwe rejoined Edinburgh from crisis-hit Worcester earlier this month and crossed twice in the second half as Mike Blair’s men ran in nine tries in total at the DAM Health Stadium.
There was also a brace for URC top try scorer Darcy Graham, who took his season tally to eight, helping Edinburgh get back to winning ways after three straight defeats to South African opposition.
A Tomas Albornoz penalty from the edge of the 22 gave Benetton an early lead after the home scrum had offended.
Although the midway point in the half came and went without further scoring, the home team gradually got on top.
Duhan's first carry ?#EDIvBEN | Credit: @URCOfficial pic.twitter.com/z32yYQTVYu
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 15, 2022
The breakthrough came after half an hour when, following two half-breaks by Graham in midfield, lock Sam Skinner was out on the right touchline to score his first try for the team.
Emiliano Boffelli failed to add the conversion but was on target with the extra points after Luke Crosbie touched down from close range in the final minute of the half.
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Edinburgh went for the jugular straight from the restart and got their reward when Pierre Schoeman finished off from a couple of metres out. This time Boffelli’s kick crashed back off a post, but Edinburgh were still two full scores up and on track for the bonus point.
That duly arrived just three minutes later when Van der Merwe shrugged off one would-be tackler and sidestepped a second to touch down close to the posts. The conversion was good this time and the game was in the bag.
He's baaaaaaccckk! ?
Duhan van der Merwe is scoring tries for @EdinburghRugby once again ?
"Welcome home! The showstopper delivers." ??#EDIvBEN pic.twitter.com/RmQ545IMkO
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) October 15, 2022
Graham added a fifth minutes later, running in unopposed on the right after an excellent break by Mark Bennett was taken on by Blair Kinghorn and Boffelli. WP Nel forced his way over from less than a metre out for his team’s sixth.
Boffelli converted Nel’s try after missing Graham’s, but then failed to convert his own – Edinburgh’s seventh – which was finished off by the Argentine international with almost embarrassing ease.
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Van der Merwe got his second 10 minutes from time after getting up in support of an Adam McBurney break.
Toa Halafihi scored a late unconverted consolation try for the visitors, but Edinburgh had the last word when Graham kicked ahead up the right, gathered and touched down for his team’s ninth try, which was also unconverted.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments